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# LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, f 

. 

f UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 



\ 



PASTORAL LETTER 

OF THE 

Second Plenary Council 

OF BALTIMORE. 



The Archbishops and Bishops 

Or the United States, 

In Plenary Council Assembled, 



TO THE 



CLERGY AND LAITY OF THEIR CHARGE. 




BALTIMORE: 
Printed by John Murphy & Co 

Publishers and Catholic Booksellers, 
182 Haltimore Street. 

18 6 6. 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



Venerable Brethren of the Clergy : 

Beloved Children of the Laity : 

After the lapse of more than fourteen years it 
has again been permitted us to assemble in Plenary 
Council, for the purpose of more effectually uniting 
our efforts for the promotion of the great object of 
our ministry — the advancement of the interests of 
the Church of God. Grod, indeed, needs not human 
agency, although He vouchsafes to employ it. As 
in assuming our nature our Divine Redeemer sub- 
jected Himself to its conditions, and was made like 
unto us, sin only excepted; 1 so He has willed that 
in the establishment and maintenance of His Church, 
human agency should be employed, and the means 
best adapted for the attainment of its great end 
should be selected. 

Among these means the assembling in council of 
the Bishops placed over the different portions of 
Christ's flock, in union with, and in obedience to, 
the Chief Bishop, to whom He has committed the 
care of the whole — lambs and sheep, people and 
pastors — has always been reckoned as among the 
most efficacious. Hence the reverence with which 
the Christian World has ever regarded the Councils 

1 Heb. iv, 15. 



4 



PASTOEAL LETTER. 



of the Church. Of these some are called General, 
because representing the universal Church — the 
body of Pastors in union with its Head — and are 
therefore the highest expression of the authority 
which Christ has given to His Church. Local Coun- 
cils, being but partial representations of the Church, 
— because composed of the Bishops of one or more 
Provinces, — are of inferior weight, but still are 
embodiments of the same principle. Among these 
Local Councils those called Plenary, because repre- 
senting several Ecclesiastical Provinces — ordinarily 
under one civil government, and therefore some- 
times called National — hold the highest place. 
They are assembled by express direction of the 
Sovereign Pontiff ; who appoints a representative 
of his authority in the Apostolic Delegate he com- 
missions to preside over them. Such Councils have 
not ordinarily to define the doctrines of the Church, 
although they furnish suitable occasions for making 
authoritative statements of them. Their principal 
object, however, is to regulate discipline, whether 
by the correction of abuses, or the establishment of 
such rules of conduct, as circumstances may require. 



I. Authority of Plenary Councils. 



The authority exercised in these councils is origi- 
nal, not delegated ; and hence their decrees have, 
from the time of their promulgation, the character 



PASTORAL LETTER. 5 



of ecclesiastical law for the faithful in the district 
or region subject to the jurisdiction of the Bishops 
by whom they have been enacted. By a wise regu- 
lation, however, which combines the benefit of cen- 
tral authority with the advantages of local legislation, 
the decrees of such councils are not promulgated or 
published until they have been submitted to the 
Holy See. This is not only for the purpose of im- 
parting to them a still higher authority, but also 
to guard against any inaccuracy in doctrinal state- 
ments, or any enactment not in conformity with 
the general discipline of the Church, or that might 
be contrary to the spirit of Ecclesiastical legislation. 

II. Ecclesiastical Authority. 

The authority thus exercised is divine in its 
origin, the Holy Ghost having " placed Bishops to 
rule the Church of God." 1 Obedience to it — 
whether there be question of " the faith once deliv- 
ered to the saints," or of rules of conduct — is not 
submission to man but to God ; and consequently 
imposes on the Faithful no obligation incompatible 
with the true dignity of man. It would be a gross 
error to confound the liberty "wherewith Christ 
has made us free," 2 with the license which would 
reject the authority He has established. As obedi- 
ence to law is the basis on which society rests, and 

1 Acts, xx. 2 St. John, viii 



6 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



the only condition on which civil liberty can be 
enjoyed; -so in Religion, respect for the authority 
established by God, obedience to its commands, and 
reverence for those in whom it is vested, are not 
incompatible with Christian Freedom, but form, in 
fact, the condition of its existence. In neither 
order, is liberty freedom from all restraint, but only 
from unjust and unauthorized control. In the 
temporal order, the limits of lawful power vary 
with the constitution of society in each particular 
nation, but in the Church, the universal society — 
divine in its origin and constitution no less than in 
its object, and bounded by no local limit — it is 
determined by the will of God, made known to men 
by that Revelation of which it forms a part, and 
of which the tribunal by whose authority it is exer- 
cised is the witness, the guardian, and the inter- 
preter. To the Apostles, as a Ministerial Body 
which was to have perpetual existence by the per- 
petual succession of its members, Christ gave the 
powers He himself had received from the Father : 
" As the Father hath sent me, I also send you." 1 
" He who hears you, hears Me." 2 Hence St. Paul 
identifies the ministry established by Christ, with 
Christ Himself, and accounts its acts as the acts of 
the Redeemer : " But all things are of God, who 
hath reconciled us to Himself in Christ, and has 
given us the ministry of reconciliation. For God 
was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not 

1 John xx, 21. 2 Luke x, 16. 



P A S T ORAL L E T T E R . 



imputing to them their sins ; and He hath placed 
in us the word of reconciliation. For Christ we are 
ambassadors; God as it were exhorting by us." 1 

We have deemed it not unnecessary to recall 
these truths to your minds, from our knowledge of 
the false light in which the nature of ecclesiastical 
authority is so often presented to view. Civil so- 
ciety requires a supreme tribunal for the adjudi- 
cation of controversies in the temporal order ; and 
without such a tribunal no society could exist. 
Much more does the Society, which Christ estab- 
lished, require that all controversies regarding the 
doctrines He taught and the duties He imposed, 
should be determined by an authority, whose deci- 
sion should be final, and which, as all are bound to 
obey it, must be an infallible oracle of truth. 

]\ T or is this principle less conformable to the dic- 
tates of reason than to the inspired language to 
which we have referred. Religion, considered as a 
Revelation, or extraordinary manifestation of super- 
natural truths, originally made to man by the min- 
istry of men, necessarily implies the agency of men 
in its continued promulgation. When the Eternal 
Word assumed the nature of man, He made an 
outward manifestation of those truths which men 
never could have known but from His testimony. 
" No man at any time hath seen Grod : the only 
begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, 
he hath declared Him." 2 What Christ made known 



l U Cor. v, 18, 19, 20. 



3 John i, 18. 



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PASTOKAL LETTER. 



to the Apostles, He commanded them to make known 
to men: "teaching them to observe all things what- 
soever I have commanded you." 1 He gave their 
teaching the sanction of His personal authority, and 
placed no limit to the continuance of the commission 
thus imparted : "Behold I am with you all days, even 
to the consummation of the world" 2 — a phrase once 
before used by Our Lord, and once by the same 
Evangelist, St. Matthew, to designate the " end of 
the world." 3 To suppose that this commission was 
fulfilled by the preaching or writing of the Apos- 
tles, so that after them, men were not to have living- 
teachers, who no less than they should speak with 
the authority of Christ, is to suppose that Christ 
departed from the plan he originally traced out, 
and adopted another plan of which he made no 
mention. But such a supposition is irreconcilable 
with the plain and authoritative language He used, 
and incompatible with His divine character. 

The Apostles certainly did not so understand the 
words of their Divine Master. They " appointed 
priests in every city :" 4 to these they gave the power 
of associating others with themselves in the office of 
teaching ': as they themselves had been associated 
with the Apostles : and as the Apostles had been 
associated with Christ. Hence the charge which 
St. Paul gave to Timothy, was, no doubt, given to 
all who, like Timothy, had received the imposition 

1 Matth. xxviii. 20. 2 Ibid. 

3 Matth. xiii. 30— xxiv. 3. 4 Tit. i. 5. 



P A S T O R A L LETTER. 9 

of hands for the work of the ministry. " Thou, 
therefore, my son, be strong in the grace which is in 
Christ Jesus ; and the things which thou hast heard 
from me before many witnesses, the same commend 
to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others 
also." 1 Hence the principle, elsewhere enunciated 
by the same Apostles, that " faith comes by hear- 
ing," 2 is that by which the knowledge of Christ's 
religion was to be continued, as it was that by 
which it was first made known. The announcement 
of divine truth by preachers, who have a divine 
commission to preach, is clearly expressed by the 
same Apostle in the series of questions which pre- 
cede the words above quoted, and from which these 
words are a consequence. Having stated that all 
who call on the name of the Lord, whether Jew or 
Greek, shall be saved, he asks himself, for the pur- 
pose of answering a possible objection, the following- 
questions : " How shall they then call on Him in 
whom they have not believed ? Or how shall they 
believe in Him of whom they have not heard? 
And how shall they hear without a preacher ? And 
how can they preach unless they be sent ; as it is 
written : ' How beautiful are the feet of them that 
preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad 
tidings of good things !"' 3 

Those who refuse to obey this authority, and who 
condemn it as an unwarranted assumption of power 
on the part of the Church, deprive themselves of 

a II Tim. ii, 2. 2 Rora.x, 17. 3 Rom. x, 14, 15. 

2 



10 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



the only means by which they can learn with entire 
certainty the truths God requires them to believe 
and the duties He imposes, in order to be saved. 
With such persons opinion is necessarily substi- 
tuted for faith, which is firm and unwavering belief, 
on authority external to the believer. Nor can it 
be said, that those who reject the authority of the 
Church believe, on the authority of God, what they 
find Him to have revealed in His written Word. 
The meaning of that Word — whether it be supposed 
attainable by the exercise of the judgment aided by 
prayer for divine Light, or by a supposed immediate 
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, — in every such case, 
is ascertained by the individual whose judgment 
may err, and whose belief of a divine Inspiration 
may therefore be an illusion. Experience shows, 
that this must be the case in most instances ; and 
reason suggests that it may be the case in all. The 
most contradictory conclusions are arrived at by 
men of great talent, vast learning, and undoubted 
sincerity of purpose. The most absurd and blas- 
phemous ideas have been regarded by many as the 
teachings of the Holy Spirit, under the influence of 
the illusion, that what was the suggestion of their 
own imagination — if not the promptings of Satan, 
who sometimes "transforms himself into an angel 
of light," — was indeed the voice of God. The tra- 
dition of the Church — that is the handing down 
from pastor to pastor, under the divine protection 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



11 



and guarantee, the doctrines originally received — 
is the only rational ground we can have for our 
belief, that God has revealed the truths which we 
believe. "Although I," says St. Paul, "or an angel 
from heaven, preach to you a gospel other than you 
have received, let him be anathema." 1 The same 
tradition, joined with the authority of the pastors 
of the Church, is the criterion by which St. John 
teaches us to try the spirits : " We are of God. He 
that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of 
God, heareth us not. By this we know the spirit 
of truth and the spirit of error." 2 

What the plain words of Christ and reason itself 
establish, experience confirms. The authority re- 
cognized in the Catholic Church " preserves the 
unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," and exhib- 
its to the world One Body and One Spirit, because 
there is One Faith, as there is but One Lord whose 
revelation it is. 3 Outside of this One Fold of the 
One Shepherd, divisions arise and are perpetuated, 
because there is no supreme tribunal by which they 
might be extinguished; sects are multiplied, and 
religious indifference or unbelief is sought as a 
refuge from the contradiction of tongues. Hence 
the principles of morality, which derive the only 
efficacious motives for their practice from the Reve- 
lation of which they form a part, are weakened, if 
not entirely undermined ; the believer is embar- 
rassed and perplexed, and the unbeliever, who can- 

1 Gal. i, 8. 2 1 John iv, 6. 2 Ephes. iv, 5. 



12 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



not alway distinguish between the Church and the 
sects, finds a plausible excuse for incredulity in the 
diversities of religious systems and the divisions of 
professing Christians. 

This authority is exercised not only in defining 
the truths of Faith, and in determining whatever 
controversies may arise in relation to them, but 
also in warning the Flock of Christ by seasonable 
admonitions, against whatever might interfere with 
the purity of Christian Morals, and by rebuke and 
reprehension, when they are found necessary for 
the correction of abuses. " Obey your Prelates," 
says St. Paul, " and be subject to them ; for they 
watch, as having to render an account for your 
souls, that they may do this with joy, and not with 
grief. For this is not expedient for you." 1 We 
cheerfully acknowledge, Yenerable and Beloved 
Brethren, the general and willing acceptance by 
you of this important principle of a living, guiding 
authority, which distinguishes the Church as a di- 
vine Institution, from the various sects that sur- 
round her. We wish, however, to impress upon 
the minds of all our spiritual children the obliga- 
tion imposed on them of obeying their respective 
Prelates — each in his own Diocese — by receiving 
their directions as the expression of the Authority 
which Christ has established in His Church. So 
long as such directions are not set aside by superior 
authority, they are to be received as a rule of con- 

1 Heb. xiii, 17. 



PASTOEAL LETTER. 



13 



duct ; nor can they be evaded without transgress- 
ing the Apostolic precept, "Obey your Prelates." 
No motive derived from the possible misconception 
of the nature of that which is forbidden, or from the 
real or supposed difference of opinion — the action 
or inaction of other Prelates — will excuse the Cath- 
olic from the crime of disobedience towards his own 
Bishop, if he refuse to be guided by him, and pre- 
sume to dictate when it is his duty to obey. Hence 
when we warn you, either collectively, as in the 
present instance, or singly in our respective Dio- 
ceses, to avoid secret societies and all associations 
which we deem unlawful, you cannot, on the peril 
of your souls, disregard our admonitions : because 
the authority we exercise in such cases is that of 
Him who has said : " He who hears you hears Me, 
and he who despises you despises Me ; and he that 
despises Me despises Him that sent Me." 1 

III. Relations of the Church to the State. 

The enemies of the Church fail not to represent 
her claims as incompatible with the independence 
of the Civil Power, and her action as impeding the 
exertions of the State to promote the well-being of 
society. So far from these charges being founded 
in fact, the authority and influence of the Church 
will be found to be the most efficacious support of 

1 Luke x, 16. 



14 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



the temporal authority by which society is gov- 
erned. The Church, indeed, does not proclaim the 
absolute and entire independence of the Civil Power, 
because it teaches with the Apostle, that " all Power 
is of God;" that the temporal magistrate is His 
minister, and that the power of the sword he wields 
is a delegated exercise of authority committed to 
him from on high. 1 For the children of the Church 
obedience to the Civil Power is not a submission to 
force which may not be resisted ; nor merely the 
compliance with a condition for peace and security ; 
but a religious duty founded on obedience to God, 
by whose authority the Civil Magistrate exercises 
his power. This power, however, as subordinate 
and delegated, must always be exercised agreeably 
to God's Law. In prescribing anything contrary 
to that Law the Civil Power transcends its author- 
ity, and has no claim on the obedience of the citizen. 
Never can it be lawful to disobey God, as the Apos- 
tles, Peter and John, so explicitly declared before 
the tribunal which sat in judgment on them : "If 
it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather 
than God, judge ye." 2 This undeniable principle 
does not, however, entail the same consequences in 
the Catholic system as in those of the sects. In 
these, the individual is the ultimate judge of what 
the law of God commands or forbids, and is conse- 
quently liable to claim the sanction of the higher 
law, for what after all may be, and often is, but the 



1 Rom. xiii, 1-5. 



- Acts iv, 19. 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



15 



suggestions of an undisciplined mind, or an over- 
heated imagination. Nor can the Civil Government 
be expected to recognize an authority which has no 
warrant for its character as divine, and no limits in 
its application, without exposing the State to dis- 
order and anarchy. The Catholic h as a guide in 
the Church, as a divine Institution, which enables 
him to discriminate between what the Law of God 
forbids or allows ; and this authority the State is 
bound to recognize as supreme in its sphere — of 
moral, no less than dogmatic teaching. There may, 
indeed, be instances in which individual Catholics 
will make a misapplication of the principle ; or in 
which, while the principle of obedience to Civil 
Authority is recognized as of divine obligation, the 
seat of that authority may be a matter of doubt, by 
reason of the clashing opinions that prevail in re- 
gard to this important fact. The Church does not 
assume to decide such matters in the temporal 
order, as she is not the judge of civil controversies, 
although she always, when invited to do so, has 
endeavored to remove the misconceptions from 
which disputes so often arise, and to consult for 
every interest while maintaining the peace of 
society and the rights of justice. 

While cheerfully recognizing the fact, that 
hitherto the General and State Governments of 
our country, except in some brief intervals of 
excitement and delusion, have not interfered with 
our ecclesiastical organization or civil rights, we 



16 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



still have to lament that in many of the States we 
are not as yet permitted legally, to make those 
arrangements for the security of Church Property, 
which are in accordance with the canons and dis- 
cipline of the Catholic Church. In some of the 
States we gratefully acknowledge that all is granted 
in this regard that we could reasonably ask for. 
The right of the Church to possess property, 
whether churches, residences for the clergy, ceme- 
teries, or school houses, asylums, etc., cannot be 
denied without depriving her of a necessary means 
of promoting the end for which she has been estab- 
lished. We are aware of the alleged grounds for 
this refusal to recognize the Church in her corpo- 
rate capacity, unless on the condition, that, in the 
matter of the tenure of ecclesiastical property, she 
conform to the general laws providing for this 
object. These laws, however, are for the most part 
based on principles which she cannot accept, with- 
out departing from her practice from the beginning, 
as soon as she was permitted to enjoy liberty of 
worship. They are the expression of a distrust of 
ecclesiastical power, as such ; and are the fruit of 
the misrepresentations which have been made of 
the action of the Church in past ages. As well 
might the civil power prescribe to her the doctrines 
she is to teach and the worship with which she is 
to honor God, as to impose on her a system of 
holding her temporalities, which is alien to her 
principles, and which is borrowed from those who 



PASTORAL LETTER. 17 

have rejected her authority. Instead of seeking to 
disprove the various reasons alleged for this denial 
of the Church's rights in some of the States, we 
content ourselves with the formal protest we hereby 
enter against it ; and briefly remark, that even in 
the supposition, which we by no means admit, that 
such denial was the result of legitimate motives, 
the denial itself is incompatible with the full 
measure of Ecclesiastical or Religious Liberty, 
which we are supposed to enjoy. 

Nor is this an unimportant matter, or one which 
has not practical results of a most embarrassing 
character. Xot only are we obliged to place church 
property in conditions of extreme hazard, because 
not permitted to manage our Church temporalities 
on Catholic principles ; but in at least one of these 
United States — Missouri — laws have been passed 
by which all Church property, not held by corpor- 
ations, is subjected to taxation ; and the avowed 
object of this discriminating legislation, is hostility 
to the Catholic Church. In concluding these re- 
marks, we merely refer to the attempt made in that 
State to make the exercise of the ecclesiastical min- 
istry depend on a condition laid clown by the civil 
power. 

IV. Aid for the Pope. 

When last assembled in Plenary Council, we 
called on you to aid the Holy rather, by your con- 
3 



18 PASTORAL LETTER. 

tributions, and you generously responded to our ap- 
peal. Since then the richest and most fertile portions 
of the States of the Church have been wrested from 
him by the hands of violence, and his position has 
become still more critical and embarrassed. In 
order to enable him to assist those who are 
dependent on him, and to carry on the affairs of 
the Universal Church, it is absolutely necessary 
that the children of the Church in all parts of the 
world should come to his help. We have therefore 
felt it to be our duty to direct that an annual col- 
lection be henceforth taken up in all the Dioceses 
in the country, on the Sunday within the Octave of 
the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, or such other 
Sunday as the Ordinary may direct, to be devoted 
to this purpose. 

We need not remind you that the obligation of 
supplying the temporal wants of those who minister 
to your spiritual necessities applies in a special 
manner to the Sovereign Pontiff, who necessarily 
incurs great expenses in discharging the duties of 
his high office. We abstain from more than an 
allusion to the trials and humiliations to which the 
political changes in Italy, which have since occurred, 
have exposed him. However much the prevalence 
of false ideas, and an erroneous estimate of the 
real character of the charges referred to may 
mislead the judgment, all must admire the noble 
courage which the Holy Father has maintained, in 
the midst of these outrages ; as all must be struck 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



19 



by that visible protection which Providence appears 
to have afforded him, so that he alone of all the 
princes of Italy yet retains his sovereignty and his 
independence. The imminent dangers, to which he 
has been exposed in his long and eventful Pontifi- 
cate, have been hailed by the enemies of the Church 
as a triumph, and they have awakened in the lat- 
ter the liveliest exultation and the most extrava- 
gant anticipations. You know, Brethren, how 
fallacious are such expectations ; how delusive such 
hopes. You need not to be told, that the condition 
of the Church of Christ on earth is one of trial and 
endurance ; that the Spouse of Christ is never more 
worthy of His love than when assimilated to Him 
by walking in His footsteps: 1 that the temporary 
triumph of her enemies is the forerunner of their 
ultimate defeat ; and that every trial to which she 
is subjected is the preparation for her final victory. 
The more violent the storm, the more firmly, when 
it shall have spent its fury, will this tree of life 
be found to have struck its roots into the soil, in 
which the right hand of the Fafher hath planted it. 
A holy Pope, who filled the chair of Peter in the 
year 494, wrote thus to the Greek Emperor Anas- 
tasius : "What is of divine institution may be 
attacked by human presumption, but it cannot be 
overcome, no matter how great the power employed 
against it. Would that the impiety which impels 
them were as innoxious to its assailants, as that 

1 1 Peter ii, 21. 



20 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



which Grocl has established is superior to all vio- 
lence. ' The sure foundation of God standeth 
firm.' 1 Does not experience shew that the Church, 
when attacked, instead of being overcome, is ren- 
dered the more invincible by that which appeared 
to ensure its destruction?" 2 Or, as St. Augustine 
forcibly expresses the same idea ; the greater the 
violence with which earthly vessels strike against 
this rock the greater the destruction in which they 
are involved. 

How consoling and encouraging the fact, that we 
can adopt this language, and may learn from the 
eighteen centuries of her eventful existence, that 
every successive trial of the Church proves the 
truth of the prophet's promise : " When thou shalt 
pass through the waters, I will be with thee ; and 
the rivers shall not cover thee : when thou shalt 
walk through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and 
the flames shall not burn in thee." 3 " poor little 
one, tossed with tempest without all comfort : behold 
I will lay thy stones in order, and will lay thy 
foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy 
bulwarks of jasper, and thy gates of graven stones, 

1 II Tim. ii, 19. 

2 Impeti possunt bumanis prsesumptionibus quse divino sunt judicio consti- 
tuta: vinci autem quorum libet potestate non possunt. Atque utinam sic 
contra nitentibus perniciosa non sit audacia, quemadmodum quod ab ipso 
sacrse Eeligionis Auctore praefixum est, non potest ulla virtute convelli. — 
Firmamenium enim Dei siat. Num quidnani cum aliquibus infesta Religio 
est, quantaeunque potuit novitate superari, et non magis ha^c invicta per- 
mansit quo restimata est posse succumbere? — Gelasius ad Anastasium. 

3 Isaias xliii, 2. 



PASTORAL LET T E R . 



21 



and all thy borders of desirable stones. All thy 
children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall 
be the peace of thy children. And thou shalt be 
founded in justice ; depart far from oppression, for 
thou shalt not fear: and from terror, for it shall 
not come near thee. No weapon that is formed 
against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that 
resists thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn." 1 

V. The Sacrament of Matrimony. 

To that sacrament of the Church which is highest 
in its typical signification — the sacrament of matri- 
mony — we feel it our duty to direct in a particular 
manner your attention. From the beginning, as 
we learn from St. Paul, the union of man and 
woman was a great mystery or sacrament ; because, 
from the beginning, it prefigured the union of Christ 
with his Church. 2 In nothing perhaps is the influ- 
ence of the Spirit of Truth more evident in the 
teaching of the Church, than in the care with which 
she has protected this " great sacrament," which, 
by so many, agreeably to what St. Paul had fore- 
told, 3 was stigmatized as unlawful, while by others 
it was unduly exalted above sacred virginity, con- 
trary to the express teaching of Christ 4 and his 
inspired Apostle. 5 The holiness of Christian mat- 

'Isaias )W, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17. 2 Eph. v, 32. 3 1 Tim. iv, 3. 
4 Matth. xix, 11, 12. 6 1 Cor. vii, 29-40. 



22 



PASTOEAL LETTEE. 



rimony is connected with our most sacred associa- 
tions and duties ; and it cannot be lost sight of in 
however small degree, without entailing the most 
serious consequences. The Church has shown in 
reference to this subject, a spirit of watchfulness 
and solicitude, which alone would entitle her to the 
gratitude of man, and cause her to be regarded as 
the most faithful guardian of public and private mo- 
rality. Many of the innumerable contests in which 
she was compelled to engage with the depositaries 
of the Civil Power, during the middle ages, were 
in defence of the stability and sanctity of the mar- 
riage-tie ; and, at a later period, she preferred to 
see England torn from her side, rather than yield 
compliance with the will of a monarch, who sacri- 
ficed his country's faith to his unbridled passions. 
In this matter she knew no distinction between the 
private man and the monarch ; contrary to what an 
apologist for the worst passions and most cruel 
deeds of this unhappy Ruler insists should have 
been her line of conduct. 1 Even in our own days, 
her conservative authority has been exerted in the 
same cause ; and the anger of the first Napoleon 
was incurred by the refusal of Pius VII., of holy 
memory, to declare invalid a marriage contracted 
between that ruler's brother and a Protesant lady 
of the city in which we are now assembled. When 
this same monarch sought to break his first faith, 
he was obliged to have recourse to an extinct tri- 

1 Froude, 1 vol., chap. 2, p. 132, American edition. 



PASTORAL LETTER. 23 

bunal of the diocese of Paris — resuscitated for that 
special purpose, — which presumed to decide a ques- 
tion which the wisdom of the Holy See has reserved 
for its own exclusive jurisdiction. 

We recall these facts, because they most strongly 
express the principle of the Church in regard to 
matrimony, and must be regarded by every well 
regulated mind as among the brightest jewels of 
her crown. We recall them, also, in order to en- 
force our solemn admonition to our flocks, to give 
no ear to the false and degrading theories on the 
subject of matrimony, which are boldly put forward 
by the enemies of the Church. According to these 
theories, marriage is a mere civil contract, which 
the Civil Power is to regulate, and from which an 
injured or dissatisfied party may release himself or 
herself by the remedy of divorce, so as to be able 
lawfully to contract new engagements. This is in 
evident contradiction with the words of Christ : 
" What God has joined together, let no man put 
asunder." 1 As the guardian of God's holy Law, 
the Church condemns this false theory, from which 
would follow a successive polygamy, no less opposed 
to the unity and stability of Christian marriage 
than that simultaneous polygamy, which, to the 
scandal of Christendom, is found within our bor- 
ders. No State law can authorize divorce, so as to 
permit the parties divorced to contract new engage- 
ments ; and every such new engagement, contracted 

1 Maith. xix, 6. 



24 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



during the joint lives of the parties so divorced, 
involves the crime of adultery. We refer with pain 
to the scandalous multiplication of these unlawful 
separations, which, more than any other cause, are 
sapping the foundations of morality and preparing 
society for an entire -dissolution of the basis on 
which it rests. 

If so many marriages become unhappy, and the 
bond which unites the married couple prove so 
often a galling yoke, this is to be attributed, in 
most instances, to the neglect and disregard of the 
Church's laws in reference to this subject. These, 
as you know, forbid marriage between persons 
related to each other in certain degrees of consan- 
guinity and affinity, as also between Catholics and 
non-Catholics. Whatever exceptions may be found 
to the general observation as to the result of such 
unions, they are in principle condemned by the 
Church ; and that from the most serious motives ; 
which in the case of consanguinity, are founded in 
well ascertained physiological principles ; in the 
case of affinity, in the danger to which possible 
unions may place parties who are necessarily 
brought into fraternal relations ; and in the case of 
mixed marriages, to the danger of perversion, to 
which the Catholic party and the offspring of such 
marriages are exposed. 

But something more than the observance of these 
laws of the Church in relation to marriage is 
required in order that Christians should discharge 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



25 



their entire duty, when about to enter the conjugal 
state. Its sacred character, and the obligations 
towards G-od's society which it imposes, should 
always be kept in mind. Purity of life, and affec- 
tion that has better and more lasting grounds than 
'the impulse of passion, are the only proper dispo- 
sitions for entering upon a state of life which death 
alone can change, and which involves so many 
important consequences for time and eternity. 

Who, asks Tertullian, can express the happiness 
of that marriage which the Church approves, which 
sacrifice (the Mass) confirms, and which blessing- 
seals — angels announce it, and the Father ratifies ?" 1 

Bearing in mind the sanctity of Marriage, and the 
time-honored usages of the Church in the admin- 
istration of the Sacrament, we cannot too strongly 
urge upon you the importance of contracting it 
before the Altar of God, and with the Marriage 
Mass, so as to receive that especial blessing which 
carries with it so many graces, to enable those who 
enter upon this holy state to fulfil its most import- 
ant duties. 

VI. On Books and Newspapers — The Press. 

The Council of Trent 2 requires, that all books 
which treat of Religion should be submitted before 

^ert. Ad uxorem, lib. ii, cap. ult. 
2 Sessj iv. Dec. de editione et usu sacrorum librorum. 

4 



26 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



publication to the Ordinary of the diocese in which 
they are to be published, for the purpose of obtain- 
ing his sanction, so as to assure the faithful that 
they contain nothing contrary to faith or morals. 
This law is still of force ; and in the former Plenary 
Council its observance was urged, and the Bishops 
were exhorted to approve of no book which had 
not been previously examined by themselves, or 
by clergymen appointed by them for that purpose, 
and to confine such approbation to works published 
in their respective dioceses. The faithful should be 
aware that such approbation is rather of a negative 
than of a positive character ; that it by no means 
imparts to the statements or sentiments such works 
may contain any episcopal sanction ; but merely 
guarantees them as free from errors in faith or 
morals. 

In many also of our dioceses there are published 
Catholic Papers, mostly of a religious character ; 
and many of such papers bear upon them the state- 
ment that they are the " organs" of the Bishop of 
the diocese in which they are published, and some- 
times of other Bishops in whose dioceses they cir- 
culate. We cheerfully acknowledge the services 
the Catholic Press has rendered to Religion, as also 
the disinterestedness with which, in most instances, 
it has been conducted, although yielding to pub- 
lishers and editors a very insufficient return for 
their labors. We exhort the Catholic community 
to extend to these publications a more liberal sup- 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



27 



port, in order that they may be enabled to become 
more worthy the great cause they advocate. 

We remind them, that the power of the Press is 
one of the most striking features of modern society; 
and that it is our duty to avail ourselves of this 
mode of making known the truths of our Religion, 
and removing the misapprehensions which so gen- 
erally prevail in regard to them. If many of these 
papers are not all that we would wish them to be, 
it will be frequently found, that the real cause of 
their shortcomings is the insufficient support they 
receive from the Catholic Public. Supply and 
demand act and react on each other ; and if in 
many instances the former produces the latter, in 
regard at least to Catholic publications, demand 
must precede supply. We also wish to guard 
against the misapprehension, which frequently 
arises from the Bishop's name being connected with 
such j^apers, in so far as they are recognized as 
' organs,' that is, as mediums through which the 
Ordinary communicates with his diocesans. This 
circumstance gives no sanction to the articles which 
appear in such papers, other than they may derive 
from the name of the writer when given : still less 
does it identify the Bishop with the paper, so as to 
justify the conclusion that whatever appears in it 
has his sanction and authority. It merely desig- 
nates the paper as one in which the Bishop will 
cause to be inserted such official documents as he, 
from time to time, may have to publish, and in 



28 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



regard to which it is obviously desirable that there 
should be some regular mode of communication. 

In connection with this matter we earnestly re- 
commend to the Faithful of our charge the Cath- 
olic Publication Society, lately established in 
the City of ]S"ew York by a zealous and devoted 
clergyman. Besides the issuing of short tracts, 
with which this society has begun, and which may 
be so usefully employed to arrest the attention of 
many whom neither inclination nor leisure will 
allow to read larger works ; this Society contem- 
plates the publication of Catholic Books, according 
as circumstances may permit, and the interests of 
Religion appear to require. From the judgment 
and good taste evinced in the composition and 
selection of such tracts and books as have already 
been issued by this Society, we are encouraged to 
hope that it will be eminently effective in making- 
known the truths of our Holy Religion, and dispel- 
ling the prejudices which are mainly owing to want 
of information on the part of so many of our fellow 
citizens. For this, it is necessary that a generous 
co-operation be given, both by clergy and laity, to 
the undertaking, which is second to none in impor- 
tance, among the subsidiary aids which the inven- 
tions of modern times supply to our Ministry for 
the diffusion of Catholic Truth. 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



29 



VII. Education of Youth. 



We recur to the subject of the education of youth, 
to which, in the former Plenary Council, we already 
directed your attention, for the purpose of reitera- 
ting the admonition we then gaye, in regard to the 
establishment and support of Parochial Schools; 
and of renewing the expression of our conviction, 
that religious teaching and religious training should 
form part of every system of school education. 
Every day's experience renders it evident, that to 
develop the intellect and store it with knowledge, 
while the heart and its affections are left without 
the control of religious principle, sustained by relig- 
ious practices, is to mistake the nature and object 
of education ; as well as to prepare for parent and 
child the most bitter disappointment in the future, 
and for society the most disastrous results. We 
wish also to call attention to a prevalent error on 
the subject of the education of youth, from which 
parents of the best principles are not always ex- 
empt. Naturally desiring the advancement of their 
children, in determining the education they will 
give them, they not unfrequently consult their 
wishes, rather than their means, and the probable 
position of their children in mature age. Educa- 
tion, to be good, need not necessarily be either high 
or ornamental, in the studies or accomplishments it 
embraces. These things are in themselves unobjec- 



30 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



tionable ; and they may be suitable and advantageous 
or otherwise, according to circumstances. Prepare 
your children for the duties of the state or condition 
of life they are likely to be engaged in : do not 
exhaust your means in bestowing on them an edu- 
cation that may unfit them for these duties. This 
would be a sure source of disappointment and dis- 
satisfaction, both for yourselves and for them. Ac- 
custom them from their earliest years to habits of 
obedience, industry, and thrift : and deeply impress 
on their minds the great principle, that happiness 
and success in life, as well as acceptance with God, 
do not so much depend on the station we fill, as on 
the fidelity with which we discharge its duties. 
Teach them, that the groundwork of true happiness 
must be placed in habitual and cheerful submission 
of our wills to the dispensations of Providence, who 
has wisely consulted for the happiness of all, with- 
out, however, bestowing on all an equal share of 
the goods of fortune. 



VIII. Catholic Protectories and Industrial 

Schools. 

Connected with this subject of education, is the 
establishment of Protectories and Industrial Schools 
for the correction or proper training of youth, which 
has of late years attracted universal attention. It 
is a melancholy fact, and a very humiliating avowal 



PASTOKAL LETTEE. 



31 



for us to make, that a very large proportion of the 
idle and vicious youth of our principal cities are 
the children of Catholic parents. Whether from 
poverty or neglect, the ignorance in which so many 
parents are involved as to the true nature of educa- 
tion, and of their duties as Christian parents, or the 
associations which our youth so easily form with 
those who encourage them to disregard parental 
admonition ; certain it is, that a large number of 
Catholic parents either appear to have no idea of 
the sanctity of the Christian family, and of the re- 
sponsibility imposed on them of providing for the 
moral training of their offspring, or fulfil this duty 
in a very imperfect manner. Day after day, these 
unhappy children are caught in the commission of 
petty crimes, which render them amenable to the 
public authorities ; and, day after clay, are they 
transferred by hundreds from the sectarian reform- 
atories in which they have been placed by the 
courts, to distant localities, where they are brought 
up in ignorance of, and most commonly in hos- 
tility to, the Religion in which they had been bap- 
tized. The only remedy for this great and daily 
augmenting evil is, to provide Catholic Protectories 
or Industrial Schools, to which such children may 
be sent ; and where, under the only influence that 
is known to have really reached the roots of vice, 
the youthful culprit may cease to do evil and learn 
to do good. We rejoice that in some of our dio- 
ceses — would that we could say in all !— a beginning 



32 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



lias been made in this good work ; and we cannot 
too earnestly exhort our Venerable Brethren of the 
Clergy to bring this matter before their respective 
flocks, to endeavor to impress on Christian parents 
the duty of guarding their children from .the evils 
above referred to, and to invite them to make per- 
severing and effectual efforts for the establishment 
of Institutions, wherein, under the influence of re- 
ligious teachers, the waywardness of youth may be 
corrected, and good seed planted in the soil in 
which, while men slept, the enemy had sowed tares. 



IX. Vocations to the Priesthood. 



We continue to feel the want of zealous priests, 
in sufficient number to supply the daily increasing- 
necessities of our dioceses. While we are gratified 
to know, that in some parts of our country the num- 
ber of youths who offer themselves for the Ecclesi- 
astical state is rapidly increasing, we are obliged to 
remark, that in the other parts, notwithstanding all 
the efforts and sacrifices, which have been made for 
this object, and the extraordinary encouragements 
which have been held out to youthful aspirants to 
the ministry, in our Preparatory and Theological 
Seminaries, the number of such as have presented 
themselves and persevered in their vocations has 
hitherto been lamentably small. Whatever may 
be the cause of this unwillingness to enter the sacred 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



33 



ministry on the part of our youth, it cannot be at- 
tributed to any deficiency of ours in such efforts 
as circumstances have enabled us to make. We 
fear that the fault lies, in great part, with many 
parents, who, instead of fostering the desire, so 
natural to the youthful heart, of dedicating itself to 
the service of God's sanctuary, but too often impart 
to their children their own worldly-mindeclness, and 
seek to influence their choice of a state of life, by 
unduly exaggerating the difficulties and dangers of 
the priestly calling, and painting in too glowing- 
colors the advantages of a secular life. To such 
parents we would most earnestly appeal ; imploring 
them not to interfere with the designs of Grod on 
their children, when they perceive in them a grow- 
ing disposition to attach themselves to the service 
of the Altar. If Grod rewards the youthful piety of 
your sons by calling them to minister in His sanc- 
tuary, the highest privilege He confers on man, 
do not endeavor to give their thoughts another 
direction. Do not present to your children the 
priesthood in any other light than as a sublime and 
holy state, having, indeed, most sacred duties and 
most serious obligations, but having also the prom- 
ise of God's grace to strengthen and sustain human 
weakness in their fulfilment, and the divine bless- 
ing, here and hereafter, as their reward. To those 
whom God invites to co-operate with Him, in the 
most divine of all works, the salvation of souls, the 
words of Christ to His Apostles are applicable: 
5 



34 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



" Amen, I say to you, that you who have followed 
me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall 
sit in the seat of His majesty, you also shall sit on 
twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel ; 
and every one that hath left house, or brother or 
sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children, or 
lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundred 
fold, and shall possess life everlasting." 1 

And whilst speaking to you upon this subject, we 
would renew our exhortations to the Faithful, to 
contribute to the extent of their means to the Dio- 
cesan fund for the support of Ecclesiastical students. 
Situated as the Church is in this country, with a 
Catholic population so rapidly increasing from emi- 
gration, there is no work of charity that can take 
precedence of it, and none which will bring so rich 
a reward. 

X. The Laity. 

We continue to have great consolation in wit- 
nessing the advance of Religion throughout the 
various Dioceses, as shewn in the multiplication and 
improved architectural character of our Churches, 
the increase of piety in the various congregations, 
and the numerous conversions of so many who 
have sacrificed early prejudices and every consider- 
ation of their temporal interests and human feelings 
at the shrine of Catholic Truth. We must, how- 

1 Matth. xix, 27, 28. 



PASTORAL LETTEE 



35 



ever, in all candor say, that we cannot include all, 
or indeed the greater part of those who compose our 
flocks, in this testimony to fidelity and zeal. Too 
many of them, including not unfrequently men 
otherwise of blameless lives, remain for years es- 
tranged from the sacraments of the Church, although 
they attend the celebration of the divine Mysteries, 
and listen to the preaching of (rod's word with an 
earnestness and attention in themselves deserving 
of all praise. There are, indeed, others who, car- 
ried away by the impulse of passion, and but too 
easily influenced by evil examples, oblige us to rank 
them, as we do, weeping, after the example of the 
Apostle, among " the enemies of the Cross of Christ, 
whose end is destruction ; whose God is their belly ; 
and whose glory is in their shame ; who mind 
earthly things." 1 It is impossible to estimate the 
injury these unworthy Catholics, and especially 
those who are the slaves of intemperance and its 
consequent vices, inflict on the Church. In the 
minds of but too many uninformed and unreflecting 
persons, these evils are taken as the confirmation of 
early prejudices ; and the name of God is blas- 
phemed among the nations by reason of the evil 
acts of those who, Avhilst they bear the name of 
Catholics, bring disgrace on their religion by their 
evil lives. Willingly would we have avoided refer- 
ence to this painful subject ; but we are not without 
hope, that this our solemn protest against the evils 

1 Philipp. iii, 18, 19. 



36 PASTORAL LETTER. 

we deplore may diminish, if not entirely remove, 
the scandal which they occasion ; and that our 
united remonstrance may not be unheeded by those 
for whom " we watch, having to render an account 
of their souls i" 1 that they may be roused from the 
fatal lethargy in which they live, and, by sincere 
repentance and the practice of every good work 
compatible with their condition, repair, in some 
measure, the scandals they have given and the 
injury they have inflicted on the Church, by the 
irregularity of their past lives. 

In this connection, we consider it to be our duty 
to warn our people against those amusements which 
may easily become to them an occasion of sin, and 
especially against those fashionable dances, which, 
as at present carried on, are revolting to every 
feeling of delicacy and propriety, and are fraught 
with the greatest danger to morals. We would 
also warn them most solemnly against the great 
abuses which have sprung up in the matter of Fairs, 
Excursions, and Pic-nics, in which, as too often 
conducted, the name of Charity is made to cover 
up a multitude of sins. We forbid all Catholics 
from having anything to do with them, except when 
managed in accordance with the regulations of the 
Ordinary, and under the immediate supervision of 
their respective Pastors, 

We have noticed, with the most sincere satisfac- 
tion and gratitude to God, the great increase 

1 Heb. xiii, 17. 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



37 



among us of Societies and Associations, especially 
of those composed of young and middle aged men, 
conducted in strict accordance with the principles 
of the Catholic Religion, and with an immediate 
view to their own sanctification. We cannot but 
anticipate the most beneficial results to the cause 
of morality and religion from the conduct and 
example of those who thus combine together, to 
encourage one another in the frequentation of the 
sacraments, and in works of Christian charity. We 
urge their extension, and especially of the Society 
of St. Vincent of Paul and of Young Men's Catholic 
Associations, in all the dioceses and parishes of the 
country, not only as useful auxiliaries to the Paro- 
chial clergy, in the care of the poor, and of destitute 
and vagrant children, but also as one of the most 
important means of diminishing the vices and scan- 
dals of which we have spoken. 



XL The Clergy. 

We exhort our venerable Brethren of the Clergy, 
who share our cares and responsibilities, to unre- 
mitting zeal in the great work to which they have 
been called. Let them honor their ministry, having 
ever before their eyes, "the Lligh Priest, holy, inno- 
cent, undenled, separated from sinners," 1 whose 
representatives they are. By purity of life, exem- 

1 Heb. vii, 26. 



38 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



plariness and devotedness, let them be "a pattern 
of the flock from the heart" 1 — "the example of the 
faithful in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, 
in chastity," 2 — u giving no offence to any man, that 
our ministry be not blamed, but in all things exhib- 
iting ourselves as the ministers of God;" 3 so that 
" when the Prince of Pastors shall appear, they 
may receive a never-fading crown of glory." 4 

XII. The Emancipated Slaves. 

We must all feel, beloved Brethren, that in some 
manner a new and most extensive field of charity 
and devotedness has been opened to us, by the 
emancipation of the immense slave population of 
the South. We could have wished, that in accord- 
ance with the action of the Catholic Church in past 
ages, in regard to the serfs of Europe, a more 
gradual system of emancipation could have been 
adopted, so that they might have been in some 
measure prepared to make a better use of their free- 
dom, than they are likely to do now. Still the 
evils which must necessarily attend upon the 
sudden liberation of so large a multitude, with 
their peculiar dispositions and habits, only make 
the appeal to our Christian charity and zeal, pre- 
sented by their forlorn condition, the more forcible 
and imperative. 

1 1 Peter v, 3. 2 1 Tim. iv, 12. 3 II Cor. vi, 3, 4. 4 I Pet. v, 4. 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



39 



We urge upon the Clergy and people of our 
charge the most generous co-operation with the 
plans which may be adopted by the Bishops of the 
Dioceses in which they are, to extend to them that 
Christian education and moral restraint which they 
so much stand in need of. Our only regret in 
regard to this matter is, that our means and oppor- 
tunity of spreading over them the protecting and 
salutary influences of our Holy Religion, are so 
restricted. 

XIII. Religious Communities. 

We are filled with sentiments of the deepest 
reverence for those holy Virgins, who, in our various 
religious communities, having taken counsel of St. 
Paul, have chosen the better part, that they may be 
holy "in body and in spirit." 1 These serve Grod 
with undivided heart ; and, like Mary, sit at the 
feet of Jesus in devout contemplation ; or like 
Martha, devote themselves to the service of their 
neighbor, instructing youth or tending old age, 
ministering to the sick, or calming the remorses 
and encouraging the hopes of the penitent. To 
such the prophet's words are applicable: "I will 
give to them in my house and within my walls a 
place and a name better than sons and daughters." 1 
Their state on earth is likened by Christ Himself to 

1 1 Cor. vii, 34. 2 Isaias lvi, 5. 



40 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



that "of the angels in heaven;" 1 and to those who 
embrace it is promised a special reward hereafter. 
Of these virgins it is written : " These follow the 
Lamb whithersoever He goeth ;" 2 and of these it is 
said : " No man could say the canticle, but those 
hundred and forty-four thousand ; — for they are 
virgins." 3 " How great think you," asks a devout 
writer of the middle ages, commenting on these 
texts, "will be the glory that environs the Virgins 
that follow Christ by purity of heart and mind. 
Alone they follow the Lamb whithersoever He 
goeth, reflecting this glory of the Sun of Justice, 
as does the Moon that of the Orb of day. As the 
moon outshines the stars, so, in that heavenly 
kingdom, they will shine more brightly than those 
who have not emulated their purity." 4 Great, 
indeed, are the privileges and great the rewards 
promised to these chaste spouses of Christ; and 
corresponding is the reverence with which they 
have ever been regarded in the Church. " The 
glorious fruitf ulness of our Mother, the Church," 
observes St. Cyprian, "rejoices and exults in them ; 
and the more she entwines of these lilies in her 

1 Matth. xx, 30. 2 Apoc. xiv, 4. 3 Apoc. xiv. 2, 3. 

4 Quanta putas ibi gloria fulgebunt Virgines Christi, cordis simul et mentis 
puritate Christum sequentes ! Quis sanctorum chorus melius lunae comparatur 
quam Virgines? Solas sequuntur Solem justities, Christum, ut Agnum Patris, 
quocunque ierit. Unde et solse ilii similes sunt atque simillimae. Honorabuntur 
ergo prae caeteris in eodem regno existentibus splendore quidem excellentiori, 
sicut lunam videmus prse ceteris sideribus prae-eminere, possidebuntque in 
domo Domini locum meliorem multo quam cfeterorum filiorum et filiarum qui 
virginitatis merito non sunt insigncs. Vitis Mystica, Cap. xxxi. inter Opera 
S. Bernardi, t. v. p. 125. 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



41 



crown, the deeper her joy, the more intense her 
exultation. These we address," continues the 
Saint, "these we exhort; using rather the language 
of affection than of authority: not that we, the 
humblest, most deeply conscious of our own in- 
firmity, have any rebuke to make, any reprehen- 
sion to utter : but because of our obligation to be 
watchful, we are the more solicitous to guard 
against the envy of the devil." 1 

We adopt this language of the great Bishop and 
Martyr of the third century. We discharge a 
grateful duty, in rendering a public testimony to 
the virtue and heroism of these Christian Virgins ; 
whose lives shed the good odor of Christ in every 
place, and whose devotedness and spirit of self- 
sacrifice have, more perhaps than any other cause, 
contributed to effect a favorable change in the minds 
of thousands estranged from our faith. To each of 
them, however, we feel impelled to address the words 
spoken to the angel of the Church of Philadelphia : 
" Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take 
thy crown." 2 

1 Gaudefc per illas atque in illis floret Ecclesioe matris gloriosa fsecunditas, 
quantoque plus copiosa Virginitas numero suo addit, tan to plus gaudium 
matris augescit. Ad has loquimur; has adhortamur aflfectione potiusquam 
potestate; non quod extremi et minimi, et humilitatis nostroe admodum 
conscii, aliquod ad licentiam censuras vindicemus: sed quod ad solicitudinem 
inagis cauti, plus de diaboli infestatione timeamus. S. Cyprianus, Be Bisciplina 
et Habitu Virginum. 

2 Apoc. iii, 2. 



6 



42 



PASTORAL LETTER. 



Conclusion. 

We have every confidence, Venerable and dearly 
Beloved Brethren, that the Council which is this 
day brought to a close, will exert a most beneficial 
influence in the cause of our Holy Religion. 

We have taken advantage of the opportunity of 
the assembling of so large a number of Bishops 
from every part of our vast country, to enact such 
decrees as will tend to promote uniformity of dis- 
cipline and practice amongst us, and to do away 
with such imperfect observance of the rites and 
approved ceremonies of the Church, as may have 
been made necessary by the circumstances of past 
times, but which no length of prescription can ever 
consecrate, and thus to give the services of our Re- 
ligion that beauty, and dignity, which belongs to 
them, and for which we should all be so zealous. 

For the furtherance of these important objects, 
we have caused to be drawn up a clear and com- 
pendious series of Statements upon the most essen- 
tial points of Faith and Morals, with which we have 
embodied the decrees of the Seven Provincial Coun- 
cils of Baltimore, and of the First Plenary Council, 
together with the Decrees enacted by us in the 
present Council, which, when they have been exam- 
ined and approved of by the Holy See, will form a 
compendium of Ecclesiastical Law, for the guidance 
of our Clergy in the exercise of their Holy Ministry. 



P A S T 11 A L L E T T E R . 



43 



The result of our labors when thus returned to 
us, will be promulgated more fully in our Provin- 
cial Councils and Diocesan Synods, and we will 
then take advantage of the opportunity to bring 
more fully under the notice of the Clergy, and the 
people committed to our pastoral charge, the details 
of what we have clone, and the exact nature of the 
means by which we hope to give increased efficiency 
to the whole practical system of the Church in this 
country. 

We have also recommended to the Holy See, the 
erection of several additional Episcopal Sees, and 
Vicariates Apostolic, which are made necessary by 
our rapidly increasing Catholic population, and the 
great territorial extent of many of our present 
Dioceses. 

You will all rejoice, Venerable and Beloved 
Brethren, in these evidences of the vitality and 
diffusion of our Holy Faith, in the midst of the 
difficulties and evils that surround us. We depend 
on your fidelity to its sacred teachings, and your 
zealous co-operation, to give effect to our labors in 
your behalf, that so, all that has been planned and 
done by us, may be to the Glory of God, the Exalt- 
ation of His Holy Church, and the Salvation of 
Souls for which Christ died. 

" For the rest, Brethren, whatsoever things are 
true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just, whatso- 
ever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good 
fame ; if there be any virtue, if any praise of disci- 



44 



PASTOEAL LETTER. 



pline, think on these things. The things which you 
have both learned and received, and heard and 
seen, — these do ye, and the God of Peace shall be 
with you." 1 

Given at Baltimore, in Plenary Council, on the Feast 
of the Maternity of our Lady, October the 21st, in 
the year of our Lord 1866. 



M. J. SPALDING, D. D., Archbishop of Balti- 
more, Delegate Apostolic, President of the Council. 

F. JT. BLANCHET, D. D., Archbishop of Oregon 
City. 

P. R. KENRICK, D. D., Archbishop of St. Louis. 

J. S. ALEMANY, D. D., Archbishop of San Fran- 
cisco. 

J. B. PURCELL, D. D., Archbishop of Cincinnati. 

J. M. ODIN, D. D., Archbishop of New Orleans. 

JOHN McCLOSKEY, D. D., Archbishop of New 
York. 

RICHARD V. WHELAN, D. D., Bishop of 
Wheeling. 

P. P. LEFEVRE, D. D., Bishop of Zela, and 
Administrator of Detroit. 

J. M. HENNI, D. D., Bishop of Milwaukee. 

A. M. A. BLANCHET, D. D., Bishop of Nes- 
qualy. 

1 Philipp. iv, 8, 9. 



PASTORAL LETTER. 45 

A. RAPPE, D. D., Bishop of Cleveland. 

JOHN TIMON, D. D., Bishop of Buffalo. 

Mi DEMERS, D. D., Bishop of Vancouver's Island. 

M. De St. PALAIS, D. D., Bishop of Vincennes. 

J. B. LAMY, D. D., Bishop of Santa Be. 

JOHN McGILL, D. D., Bishop of Richmond. 

JOHN LOUGHLIN, D. P., Bishop of Brooklyn. 

J. R. BAYLEY, D. D., Bishop of Newark. 

L. De GOESBRIAND, D. D., Bishop of Bur- 
lington. 

G. A. CARRELL, D. D., Bishop of Covington. 

T. AM AT, D. D., Bishop of Monterey and Los 
Angelos. 

A. MARTIN, D. D., Bishop of Nachitoches. 
D. W. BACON, D. D., Bishop of Portland. 
F. BAR AG- A, D. D., Bishop of Marquette. 

H. D. JUNCKER, D. D., Bishop of Alton. 
JAMES DUG G AN, D. D., Bishop of Chicago. 
WILLIAM H. ELDER, D. D., Bishop of Natchez. 
J. H. LUERS, D. D., Bishop of Fort Wayne. 

P. N. LYNCH, D. D., Bishop of Charleston. 

F. P. McFARLAND, D. D., Bishop of Hartford. 

J. M. 0' GORMAN, D. D., Vicar Apostolic of 
Nebraska. 

T. L. GRACE, D. D., Bishop of St. Paul. 



46 PASTORAL LETTER. 

JOHN QUINLAN, D. D., Bishop of Mobile. 

J. F. WOOD, D. D., Bishop of Philadelphia. 

M. DOMENEC, D. D., Bishop of Pittsburg. 

E. O'CONNELL, D. D., Fkr Apostolic of Mary s- 
ville, California. 

AUG-. VEROT, D. D., jftaAop of Savannah. 

C. M. DUBUIS, D. D., jftsifcop 0/ Galveston. 

P. J. LAVIALLE, D. D., of Louisville. 

J. J. CONROY, D.* D., ^/sflop of Albany. 

P. A. FEEHAJST, D. D., JftsAop of Nashville. 

J. J. WILLIAMS, D. D., JEfefop of Boston. 

J. IIEXXESSY, D. D., .S&jfcop of Dubuque. 

S. H. ROSECRANS, D. D., Auxiliary Bishop of 
Cincinnati. 

D. COADY, Administrator of Erie, sede 
vacante. 

FERD. COOSMAXS, S. J., Procurator of the 
Vicar Apostolic of Kansas. 




October, 1S«(j. 



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A New, Improved and Greatly Enlarged Edition of 
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This Extensive Work, of upwards of 800 pages, large So. comprises Essays, Reviews and 
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yLectures on the Evidences of Catholicity. Fourth Revised 
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TUese Lectures are intended to exhibit, in a plain and strait-forward manner, the principal 
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\ To every lover of the Christian Religion it must be apparent, on sufficient examination, that 
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Wiistory of the Protestant Reformation, In Germany, Switz- 
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, Northern Europe. In a Series of Essays, Reviewing D'Aubigne, 
I Menzel, Hallam, Short, Prescott, Ranke, Fryxell, and others. Fourth 
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M In announcing a New Edition of this celebrated work, the Publishers feel that they are offering 
the most Comprehensive, Elaborate, and Complete HISTORY of the REFORMATION ever pub- 
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toces to the Original Authorities, most of them Protestant. All the hidden springs of actK,.. 
We developed, and the actors themselves, in the stirring drama of the Sixteenth Century, are 
brought upon the stage and portrayed, as represented bv themselves, or depicted by their contem- 
jtoraries and friends. The various influences of the Reformation, in the different countries oi 
Europe, are also thoroughly examined; and its claims to have given a new impulse to Liberty. 
Literature, and Civilization, are carefully scrutinized. Facts and authorities are succinctly and 
methodically arranged. 

Murpha' & Co. Publishers and Catholic Booksellers, Baltimore,, 




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Revised by a Father of the Society. 

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The Apostleship of JPrayer Association. Explanation and 
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The Mosary of the Ajiostleship, In small pamphlet form. 
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Circles of the Living Mosary, Illustrated. 
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This is an entirely New Translation, conformable to the Brief of His Holiness, POPE 
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Recently Published, 32o., cloth, 50 cents ; in finer bindings, up to $2. 
The Month of Mary, for the Use of Ecclesiastics. 

Translated from the French. 
Approbation of the Most Rev. Abp. Spalding. 
We have examined, and we cordially approve the publication, in 
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our Archdiocese. M. J. SPALDING, Abp. of Bait. 

This little Work, in honor of the "Immaculate Queen of the Clergy," has been already heralded 
by, at least, six editions in French. This first English Edition, is confidently recommended to 
the Ecclesiastics ot this country. 

Church Registers. — Registers of Baptisms, Marriages, Confirma- 
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The Foot of the Cross; or, the Sorrows of Mary. 
Bethlehem. Spiritual Conferences. 

The Precious Blood; or, the Price of our Salvation. 

jg^Upwards of 50,000 copies of Father Fiber's Popular Devotional Works have been sold in 
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One of the most eloquent and distinguished clergymen in the United States, in writing an 
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"We turn to this last work of the Rev. Dr. Faber, with sentiments of gratitude to heaven, 
and hope for its abundant blessing ou the teachings of such a guide, which our most earnest 
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and at the same time the most practical truths that can interest the human mind be a title to 
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years nor change of circumstances can efface. Few writers, since the days of St Francis de 
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author of 'All for Jesus,' 'The Blessed Sacrameut,' &c. &c. &c. 

Recently published, in 1 vol., 18o., cloth, 75 cents; cloth, gilt, $1.25. 
The Love of Religions Perfection; or, How to Awaken, 
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Father Jos. Bayma, S. J. 

Published ivith the Approbation of the Most Rev. Archbishop Spalding. 

No one can read, in the proper Spirit, this valuable Treatise, without perceiving it well de- 
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serv 



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PASTORAL LETTER 

OF THE 

Second Plenary Council 

OF BALTIMORE. 

The Archbishops and Bishops 

Of the United States, 

In Plenary Council Assembled, 

TO THE 

CLERGY AND LAITY OF THEIR CHARGE. 




BALTIMORE: 
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1 8 6 6. 



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GOOD THOUGHTS FOR PRIEST AND PEOPLE: 

Or, SHOUT MEDITATIONS for EVERY DAY in the YEAR, 

On the GOSPELS of the SUNDAYS and FESTIVALS, together with 
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Translated from the German by the Rev.T. NOETHEN. 

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"We have seldom seen a better or more useful work than this collection of Good Thoughts. The 
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Holy Week.— Containing the Offices of the 

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